Who Else
is Doing It?
Case Studies
Lessons
learned from other car sharing organizations.
In their online report Carsharing: Vehicle
Rental Services that
Substitute for Private Vehicle Ownership,
the
Victoria Transport Policy Institute has
identified the following best practices for
organizing and running a car sharing
organization:
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Structure car
share organizations to meet the needs of
the community. Understand the demographics
and needs of your community. Larger cities
can support much larger organizations than
smaller communities. |
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Try to implement
car sharing in conjunction with other
Transportation Demand Management (or TDM;
click
here for a definition of TDM) programs
that reduce traffic congestion and improve
transportation choices. |
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Find ways to
minimize administrative and overhead
costs. |
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Provide a variety
of pricing options to serve different
types of users (e.g., infrequent vs.
frequent users and extended vs. short
trips). |
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Structure rates to
include both time and mileage fees, so the
organization will not lose money with
either a high-mileage trip during a short
rental period, or low-mileage trip during
a long rental period. |
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Develop
partnerships with organizations that are
interested in reducing vehicle ownership
or providing occasional vehicle access to
a particular group. |
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Use innovative
marketing. |
For more information on lessons learned from
existing car sharing programs in the City of San
Francisco and the City of Amsterdam, check out
this
case study review and evaluation (this
case study is also
available online). For information on car
sharing programs in other US and Canadian
cities, see the resources listed in the
Toolkit
Links, or contact the car sharing
organizations listed in the
Internet
Resources (both in the
‘Dig a Little Deeper’ section) as well as
the people leading car sharing organizations
listed in the ‘Who You
Gonna Call?’ section.
  
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